VIP questions.
Regalia staff chatter.
Children’s routines.
Medical appointments.
Old vendor files.
Private rooms.
Executive access.
Board pressure.
Press speculation.
The casino.
The casino.
The casino.
I tap the pen against the page until I realize I am doing it hard enough to make my hand ache.
None of this proves anything.
That is the problem.
It is not proof. It is not even a theory I would be willing to say out loud to Papà yet. If I walked downstairs right now and told him I thought the casino was part of the target because Olivia heard strange questions and Bianca had a delivery window moved, he would send me away. He wouldn't say the words, but I would feel them anyway.Why don't you go visit with the women and let the men take care of this?
And his verdict would be final. I would lose any chance of anyone else listening. Vito has become a lot more independent since meeting Teresa. I am proud of him for taking his own stand, but on this, he wouldn't defy Papà. Roberto would need evidence, Antonio has his hands full with the cybersecurity, and Giovanni has his hands full with the physical security. After what happened with Erica and Emma, Nico is a loaded gun waiting to be aimed.
And Adrian—
I stop that thought before it finishes.
Adrian would listen.
That is the worst part.
He would listen in that still, focused way of his, and he would not dismiss me just because the picture is incomplete. He would ask questions I might not have the answers to yet, but he wouldn't dismiss me offhand. He would see too much.
I look toward the wall between our rooms.
No.
I turn back to the notebook.
The casino is where the family is most exposed because it is the place where our old life and new life touch. Public guests, private money, staff, vendors, investors, regulators, security systems, family routines, children in restaurants. The wives doing business in the same building as the husbands’ meetings.
It is the one spot where all of our business as a family converges.
It feels significant, but I'm not sure how.
The men can lock down houses and routes. They can trace badge cards. They can find shooters.
But this feels different.
